A Weekend Out of Time

FOREWARD: So out of an alternating combination of sloth and perpetual busyness, I haven't written this for two weeks, so here it is now. When you see "this weekend" or "today" or "yesterday", think that it happened two weeks ago.

So many a time, a single decision puts us on course for one destiny or another – the slightest of determinations can drastically and irrevocably shape our fates in profound ways never before imagined. An entire life can be thrown on tangents fantastic and terrifying on a whim.

This was not the case this weekend. We simply made the choice to go to Matsue lest we be bored at home.

Renate, Meredith, and I, on the whim of a moment, decided that we needed to get out of the city, and in fact, out of the prefecture entirely. One of the girls decided that we should do up the neighbouring prefecture's capital as it was not all and all too far away. The plan really took shape when we decided that on the way back we could stop at Mt. Daisen and give it a leisurely climb. Smug and content with out battle plan, we strapped on our armor, ready our weapons, and went to wage war with Saturday and Sunday (We got some clothes together, stopped at the bank, and drove off in the car).

The scenery once you leave the city is quite lovely – and stark, too. One moment you're passing the mall, and the next you're surrounded by mountains and valleys all around you, interspersed with tiny villages here and there. It would be a nice drive on a lazy afternoon – If only gas wasn't so expensive.

NOTE: By the way, gas here is equivalent to about $1.50 a litre, so quit your complaining, Canada. Of course, some of the tanks are smaller, so the fill-up is about the same cost, but... yeah.

Three and change hours and one toll booth later, and we have arrived in Matsue, the capital city of Shimane prefecture. Matsue in many ways reminds me of Tottori, but with subtle differences. Perhaps it's the abundance of older architecture; the "Old Japan" feel if you will. Just carried a "Japanese" air about the place, if that makes any sense.

In any event, we decided to hit up Matsue Castle first. Matsue is one of 12 castles in Japan that is still in its original skin. That is to say, it hasnt been besieged, burnt down, and reconstructed. As such, the walls, roofs, beams, etc., actually are 400 + years old. And as most castles in Japan are prone to having, it was replete with artifacts belonging to the castle lords, armor, swords, painting, scrolls, and many other things making it a veritable museum.

After the castle, we hit up a samurai residence. Just as it sounds, it was a house that was occupied by a samurai family about 200 years ago or so. I really enjoyed it there because I thought it was interesting that people actually lived in this place, going about their daily lives oblivious that some time later people would be admiring it and taking pictures of it and such. It made me think if there were any buildings that I see everyday that could one day be tourist attractions: A police station, a restaurant, my friend's house. Hey, you never know. After all, I'm sure that if I time-traveled back and told someone at the house of its future popularity, they'd be quite surprised – And not just because of the fact that a black dude was talking to them in English during the middle of 19^th century isolationist Japan.

We then missed a little boat cruise by a few minutes at around 5 P.M. (much to the girls' disappointment), and so decided to find us some food as we were starving. This led us to drive and then walk to a place that had a distinctly Western-restaurant feel to it (Think Kelsey's, but more done up). The service started great in that Meredith got her food only minutes after ordering it, but then things took a downward spiral. Almost 15 or so minutes later, Renate got her food. And an almost unprecedented 20 minutes after that, my culinary delight finally arrived (By which point Meredith was long done, and Renate was on the hind legs). Bone-headed us, we decided to order dessert, and that took I don't even remember how long to reach us. Needless to say, while the staff was very friendly, we were left wondering whether the servers also doubled as the cooks.

Dinner in belly, we bid our Matsue farewell, and then back into Tottori prefecture. The next stop found us in Yonago, which is the second biggest city after Tottori city. We humbly asked a friend if we could crash at her place because, as we wanted to do Mount Daisen and it was only about 30 minutes from Yonago (As opposed to two hours from Tottori), we felt it the prudent choice. Our friend graciously allowed us the use of her floor and many futons, and we fell asleep almost immediately.

Sidebar: MAD love to Kira (Upon whose floor we slept). There's one more place in the (Tottori) shi to crash if you're ever on this side of the prefecture. (Shi is a prefix attached to names to indicate that they're cities. We here use it as a diminutive to refer to Tottori city: Tottori-shi = Tottori City; Yonago-shi = Yonago City).

Early on the next morning, we gave out much love to our friend and set out for Daisen. Renate's car – which she has affectionately named Mitsurugi – barely made it up the mountain despite the fact that she had her pedal literally to the floor and the poor ol' boy was still barely making 40. But! We made it. A quick inspection led me to believe that I may have underestimated the mountain, as everyone around was in hardcore hiking gear (Clothing, equipment, backpacks, etc), and I was just chilling in my jeans and t-shirt. I gave it no more than a passing thought and we began our odyssey. Even getting to the stall to pay was a mission and a half as the concourse up to it was a good 30 degree incline or so. There was a few shrines and temples on the way up – a few hundred years old each – and then the actual climb on the path began.
Before I talk about the climb, please keep in mind that I'm really, really... really out of shape. P.E. and me don't see clearly. Please just bear this in mind. So there was two legs to it. In the first leg, it wasn't so bad: The trail was inclined, but fairly constant and the terrain was relatively good. Then we hit a dam – literally. A series of obsolete dams at which we could catch a reprieve as it was a very flat and open space. Then the second leg began.

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Renate will vouch for me on this one. I think it's safe to say that I've never been so physically exhausted in all my life and I hyperbolize not. Ms. Über-fit Meredith we bade to go on without us as we were being deadweight. And so the two of us were going at the snail's pace, one foot in front of the other, and taking breaks every 20 meters it seemed. Where there were stairs, I was taking it one step at a time – Nothing in the universe existed to me except for that next step that was barely in my field of vision. I think that at one point I actually saw my life flash before my eyes. Conversely, I remembered a few things that I've got to apologize to a few people for. :P It was about at this point, perhaps 1400 meters up, that I got my second wind. From whom I stole it, I know not, but however I did it, I was still winded, but able to continue more easily.

Something cool about the climb was that EVERYONE who passes you, either going the same way or, more often than not, coming back down, will say konnichi wa to you with a smile. A few will even offer you encouragement, such as gambatte ne (Good luck!) or muzukashii ne (It's difficult, isn't it?), and I found these little bits to be rather fostering to my determination to pwn the mountain.

We did in fact summit, at which point I understood the reason for the crazy climbing gear as the temperature dropped a good ten degrees, and add to that flowing air currents that might blow over a small child. But it made for a great view and a very fulfilling sense of accomplishment to finally make it up there.

A friend of ours is going to do the mountain four times over the course of two days – twice a day. We think that he's mad. But to him, I bid gambatte!